AYP results to be discussed

July 31, 2007

PNT staff report

Portales Municipal School District will hold a special meeting at 4:30 p.m. today at the board room at the Administration Building to discuss the release of the Adequate Yearly Progress results, and answer questions about the reports that are required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Superintendent Randy Fowler told board members at their last regular meeting to expect the news to be less than rosy. He even went so far as to predict that some Portales schools would be on corrective measures with the state following this year’s results.

School administrators across the state received the results a week in advance of today’s official release of the results.

All six schools in the Portales district have failed AYP standards for the last two years. That failure, according to Fowler, has primarily been due to failure in the report’s subgroups such as students with disabilities and English language learners — something that larger schools throughout the state are struggling with.

Fowler and other school officials have noted that, overall, Portales schools have seen improvements in reading and math — the focal point of NCLB. However, if there is a failure in one area or subgroup the whole school fails.

This is the first year the district has held a special meeting specifically to address AYP results. The public is welcome to attend and ask questions.